gluten-free fresh pasta

No food has ever given me such fits, or taught me as much, as fresh gluten-free pasta.

When Danny and I developed the recipe for fresh gluten-free pasta for our cookbook, we made it over and over again, almost obsessively. There are so many good gluten-free packaged pastas on the market that we both wanted to make sure our recipe yielded better pasta than the bag. So we tried every flour, plus a little xanthan and guar gum, until we had a batch we liked. And then we refined it, and did more, and more. Finally, a recipe we liked. Whew. Friends tested it and loved it too. I typed it up and sent it away in the manuscript.

When the edits came back from our incisive editor, I had plenty of work to do. Part of that work meant making each flour-based recipe again, exactly as written. After all that work on the pasta, I moved to the kitchen almost blithely. I know this one is going to work. To my horror, I found the pasta came out gloppy and oily, too crumbly to run through the pasta machine.

What?!

I cried. I did. I’m not proud of it, but I cried those hoarse choking sobs that never look pretty. All that work.

A few days later, I read a copy of Bill Buford’s book, Heat. In it, he writes about an Italian chef who comes to the state to cook an important dinner. To her horror, her pasta wasn’t working. Her pasta! She sat outside in the hallway, crying those hoarse choking sobs. All was ruined. Luckily, someone came by to tell her: American grocery store eggs are different than farm eggs in Italy. She needed to add more yolks for the extra protein.

I leapt out of bed. What did it matter if it was 11 pm? I ran to the kitchen, pulled the KitchenAid toward me, and threw together a dough. For every egg, I also added two egg yolks. I held my breath while the mixer ran. When I looked in, I started grinning. There was the pasta dough. Pasta dough, silky and supple and ready to be rolled.

Thank you, Bill Buford.

When we first created the pasta recipe, we had been using the eggs from my brother’s chickens. These fat, happy chickens make beautiful eggs, with rich orange yolks and far more protein than grocery-store eggs. In fact, the first time Lu ate an egg from the grocery store, after eating the eggs from my brother’s chickens for months, she refused to it. Of course this made a difference in the pasta. Of course.

I changed the recipe. Tested it again. Danny made pasta. Our testers made the new pasta with clear instructions. Worked every time. The cookbook came out and we have heard from hundreds of people how happy they have been to make fresh pasta for the first time.

Why change the recipe?

Well, I can no longer tolerate xanthan and guar gum. Plenty of you have said the same. And since every food I make without the gums is better for their absence, why not pasta too?

Life has been pretty hilariously full around here. We’ve been making one dish after another for our new cookbook, loving every flavor. There are some big projects demanding a lot of my attention right now, work I can’t talk about yet but will. And it’s summer. We have to spend some time at the beach.

So I started making pasta last weekend. Wednesday was the day we were all going to publish. No problem, right? I know how to make pasta by now.

Making pasta by ratio is, like all other baked goods, the way to go. It’s simple: 3 parts flour to 2 parts egg. Try three ounces of any combination of gluten-free flours, a bit of salt, and one egg (since each large egg weighs 2 ounces), and you have pasta. Simple, right?

It’s not that simple.

I tried over and over again to make gluten-free pasta without anything but flour and eggs. I must have made 8 batches with this technique alone in the last week. I tried different flours and starches, thinking that it was the protein content of the flours that mattered. No avail. Too dry. Too sticky. Not working.

Was I going to have to cry again?

Then it hit me. Pasta is one of the gluten-y recipes. Most baked goods don’t require gluten to work, and thus they don’t need an enhancer like the gums to work. But the ones that are particularly gluten-y? Bread? Pizza dough? They need something. For breads, I’ve been using the combination of chia seeds and flax seeds to great success. So I tried those with the pasta.

Much, much better. In fact, on Tuesday night, I thought we had it. I had been inundated all day Monday, happily, by the pie party. Tuesday, I had no childcare, since the daycare was closed for the 4th of July long weekend. I’d have to post Wednesday night and be a little late.

But something didn’t feel right. Danny and I both agreed  it wasn’t there yet.

So we made 6 more batches of pasta in the last two days, up until late yesterday morning. And finally, yesterday, a day after the rally, we had our secret.

I’ve been wanting to play this for awhile, after I saw that the incredible Dan Lepard uses it for his gluten-free breads. It’s high in fiber, bulks up in water, and acts as a lovely regulator for our systems. If it’s good for you, I want to try it.

And it works. It works really, really well.

Thanks to the extra time we insisted on making more pasta, I also read the pasta posts from Tara at A Baking Life  who reminded me with the quote from Heat at the top of her posts that I should add egg yolks again; doh!  and Silvana at Silvana’s Kitchen. Silvana is Italian. Her pasta looks gorgeous. And she didn’t use any gums either. It’s those extra egg yolks!

This is exactly what I hoped would happen when I thought of the Gluten-Free Ratio Rally: as a community, we are inspiring and teaching each other.

And it leads to pasta.

You can make this pasta by hand, by mixing the flours and dumping them out onto a clean surface, then putting the eggs and liquids into the well of the center. This is how people have been making pasta for centuries. It takes about five minutes.

You can also make pasta in the food processor, which is my favorite tool right now. It takes even less time than by hand. And it’s more sure.

One of the secrets to a truly great pasta dough? A little nutmeg.

Domenica Marchetti reminded me of this with her recipe for fresh pasta in her book, The Glorious Pasta of Italy. (You should definitely buy this book, once you have made this fresh pasta a few times and feel confident with it.)

Nutmeg has such an interesting subtle taste: a little sweet, a little dark, deeply savory. A touch of it in pasta will make your homemade pasta particularly good.

(As you might know, we were paid by McCormick Gourmet to try their spices and work with them in some of our recipes. We have honestly loved working with these spices. The fresh nutmeg was particularly good.)

If you work with the food processor, this is what the pasta dough will look like when you are ready.

In fact, this might even be a little wet. Just a touch. But it worked well. Look for the curds.

And this is a ball of fresh pasta dough, ready to rest, ready to play with in your kitchen.

With all this pasta making, I wanted Lu involved. And oh boy, did she want to take a turn rolling out the dough.

This is one of the joys of making fresh pasta: your kids can help make their food. Sure, it’s easy and good to buy pasta from a bag. We do too.

But once in awhile, make some pasta with your kids, if you have a chance. It’s joy.

Lu, of course, was not able to roll out the pasta as thin as it should go. (We let her roll out a piece for her own, then we rolled out the one we wanted to cook on the side.)

This is how thin Danny was able to take this fresh gluten-free pasta. That thin.

And if you’d like to see how he rolls out the pasta, we made you a little video.

You can do this. You can make homemade pasta.

If you have a pasta machine, great! This will roll out super thin in the machine. If not, you can also do this by hand. And from start to finish, after you have gathered your ingredients, it takes about two minutes in the food processor, 30 minutes of letting it rest, a few moments to cut the noodles, then 3 minutes to cook.

Easy peasy.

Making this pasta will certainly be much easier for you than it was for us to figure out the recipe!

We found, to our surprise, that garbanzo-fava flour added such a lovely savory taste to this pasta that we kept with it. If, however, you want to use different flours, feel free. Just substitute them by weight, rather than by volume.

Please do notice that the eggs are extra-large eggs here. That makes a difference.

And as is true of any recipe like this, read through the entire recipe once, then make the pasta. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect the first time. It takes practice to know the pasta in your hands.

Combine the flours, psyllium powder, nutmeg, and salt in the bowl of the food processor to combine and aerate the flours.

Mix the egg, egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the water. Pour the liquid into the flours. Run the food processor on pulse 8 to 10 times, then look at the dough. If the dough has formed crumbs that look like dry cheese curds, youre done. If they are a little too dry, add the remaining olive oil, then pulse, look, then add more water, if necessary. If the dough looks a bit too wet, add another tablespoon of flour.

Turn out onto a dry, clean surface.

Making the dough by hand.

Combine the flours, psyllium powder, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. Whisk them together for a few moments to combine and aerate the flours.

Pile the flours into a small mound on a clean, dry surface and make a well in the center.

Mix the egg, egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the water. Pour the liquid into the flours. Using a fork, rubber spatula, or your fingers, stir the liquids gently, bringing in a bit of flour from the outside walls with each turn. When most of the egg mixture is blended with the flour, bring the rest of the flour into the middle with your hands. If it feels too dry  flour flaking off the ball of dough  add the remaining olive oil, then water. If the dough feels too wet  if it squelches when it touches the board  add another tablespoon of flour.

Take a few moments to knead the dough, gently. Push forward on the ball of dough with your hand, then fold the ball back on itself toward you. Rotate the dough and repeat until the dough feels supple and smooth.

Once you have your ball of dough, whether you made it with the food processor or by hand, wrap up the dough in plastic wrap. Let it sit for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Spread a little flour on your favorite work surface. (Any of the three flours will do.) Cut the ball of pasta dough into four equal pieces. Working gently, roll out the dough, backwards and forwards, side to side, until it is as thin as it will go. (See video above.)

Using a sharp knife, cut the pasta into noodles of your desired thickness. Move the noodles onto a plate and cover them with a damp cloth as you finish the other noodles.

You may now cook your pasta. Fill a large pan with water and enough salt to make it taste like the ocean. When the water is boiling, gently nudge your noodles into the water and cook until they are soft but still have a bit of a bite, about 2 to 3 minutes. (Dont overcrowd the pan. You might have to cook this in 2 batches.) Drain immediately, reserving a bit of the cooking water for any sauce you might be making. Toss the noodles with a bit of oil to coat.

Eat.

Feeds 4.

If you have a pasta machine, roll out the ball of dough to an oval about 3 inches long and 3 inches wide. Then, put the pasta through the rollers, starting at the first setting, then moving up until the dough is as thin as you desire and not breaking. Continue with the cooking steps above.

135 comments on “gluten-free fresh pasta”

I made pasta at home only once and it was my husband’s birthday and he for ravioli made by me. It was tough and tiring but at the end taste so much better than the store bought. I will try the gluten free too

That looks like so much fun. I have found gluten-free pasta that cooked and held up well, and I have found some that my body could handle. Unfortunately, they were not the same ones. I know I can eat these ingredients. Can’t wait to give it a try.

I happen to have all of the ingredients listed and a craving for homemade gf ravioli. Thanks for all your hard work on developing the recipe, it has been quite a while since we attempted homemade gluten free pasta and I think your post and recipe is my new motivation! Keep cooking!

Thank you for all of your work and also for the video. I don’t have a food processor or a pasta machine so it will me an entirely manual experience! I DO have granite counter tops though and a rolling pin. Can’t wait to give it a try as I am a fan of garbanzo/fava flour for savory things.

Now I want to make a challenge to someone to produce ravioli dough. Would this one work? It has to hold up long enough in the boiling to let the egg in the stuffing cook.

There are GF ravioli on the market, but they have cheese stuffing I’m lactose and casein intolerant too. Grandma never put cheese in her ravioli. She used ground cooked chicken, cracker crumbs, egg, sauteed onion and a little basilico. I would love to taste those again.

This is awesome! I think we’ll have some fresh pasta tomorrow night. It will be hard to beat the pasta you did for the last cookbook. We had fun with that one and it is so good! thanks for all that you do for this community. tracy & kim

You must be reading my mind-waves… I have been thinking for the past month that I really need to hit the kitchen and figure out fresh pasta dough and voila! you have done it again for me! I cannot begin to describe what a difference your blog and books have made in my food life. I celebrate and dance in the kitchen like I never have before. Thank you! Thank you for all the time, love and hard work that go into all that you do! =)

Since I’m a naturopathic medical student, I was intrigued by this psyllium husk powder usage in gluten-free food. What a great idea. There’s even research on it on pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19782179. I can’t wait to try it!

We ordered ours online since we were putting in a flour order. However, you can find it at any health food store or pharmacy. I’ve seen it at Whole Foods and PCC here in Seattle. And it’s actually the main ingredient in Metamucil, although that contains other ingredients, including food dyes and sugar. Just ask for it at your favorite healthy store.

Where do you buy your flour? I also bake on a large scale and it is seriously taking a toll on my wallet. Where I am it is over $5 for a 1lb bag of rice flour. I make bread for me and my gluten-free diabetic mother in law so I wind up going through close to 3 lbs of flower a weekend on bread alone. Is there a place I could buy 10 or 20 lb bags of gluten free flowers online for cheap? Is there a post somewhere on baking or cooking gluten free on a budget? Times are rough and the budget is tight.

Oh, I knew you’d do it! I’ve been waiting to see how your psyllium husk pasta would come out — perfect, it seems! Now I’ve got a reason to pull my psyllium out of the back of the cupboard. Ever since I made Dan Lepard’s gf bread (which I didn’t care for, but not because of the psyllium), I haven’t been inspired to play with it further. So, the next question is: if we can access a supply of “good” eggs, how will that change the recipe? Would Betta’s 1:1 ratio work for our gf pasta?

Lovely post as always Shauna, it’s good to know somebody else cries in the kitchen sometimes! Funny thing about the nutmeg — I’ve been watching MasterChef USA Season 2 online (gratuitous reality kitchen show with Gordon Ramsay, whom I can’t resist: it’s awful but addicting) and the judges lambasted this poor woman for using nutmeg in her fresh ravioli dough! I’m guessing she used too much, but they hated it! Which I knew who she was so I could point her to this post and maybe she’d feel vindicated!

Shauna — your recipe looks fabulous! I have only made gf pasta once (actually got it right the third time around). However, I am guessing it was my ratios — because rolling it out was a work out! I too learned to let it rest before cooking — although mine did take longer to cook. It tasted good, but like you said, there are so many good packaged pastas available. This recipe looks so good — worth another pasta making day in the kitchen! Thanks for sharing, Ina

wow, what an inspiring post! I have never attempted homemade pasta, but this looks like it tastes fantastic. I have always been slightly weary of pasta because of it making my stomach hurt, but I think I may have to give this one a go…thanks for the recipe!

I recently found your blog, checked out the cookbook from the library and liked it so much I bought a copy. One of the first recipes I tried was the pasta. I didn’t want to cook with the gums so I figured I’d try the flax seed replacement that you had suggested for some of the other things. Turned out pretty good but I knew it needed a little work. So excited to see what you’ve tried here!

One thing I’m wondering…I’m guessing the egg ratio in this recipe reflects store bought eggs? I have my own chickens. My first batch of pasta was too wet and I had to add more flour. Maybe a little less egg? I’m going to try again…

Shauna– this looks amazing! Gordon Ramsay threw a FIT on MasterChef a few weeks ago for pasta with nutmeg in it.… I think he’s wrong! Do you get your psyllium husk powder from any particular GF source?

Thank you Shauna and Dany form this great recipe. I noticed that in his recipes, Pierre Hermé uses eggs by weight (Xgr or fresh egg whites or yolks) and was wondering if that would be something you may consider in the future (of course, no need to go back to the pasta recipe!!). I really appreciate your recipes by weight (I have always baked by wight anyway) and love the ratio rallies as well. Using eggs in weight (rather than number of eggs and egg size) might make more consistent results for all of us, and perhaps less stress for you when you are testing the recipes.

Just a thought. Keep up the fantastic work. We all appreciate it a lot!!!!

Prunella (and what a wonderful name!), we actually did weigh them all out to make sure they fit the ratio. That’s one of the reasons we chose to go with extra-large eggs, because that number of those eggs fit the ratio. We really just wanted yolks, so we felt people who had never made pasta might be more likely to make them if we listed the yolks instead of the weight. But next time!

Thank you for the video and talking through your experiences with the different egg sizes. It has been my cooking goal of the week to make your pasta recipe (your old one). Which recipe would you recommend for a first time pasta maker? I know that you can no longer tolerate gums, but did you find a difference in the doughs? Did you enjoy the texture of one recipe over the other? I think all of us in the GF community appreciate the work that you do to share such wonderful recipes.

Heather, I’ve used it before when I was in university way back when. I was fine for me then, and my vegan best friend had no problems with it either. Haven’t had it since I moved back to SE Asia, so I can’t say if the taste would bother me now, but it wasn’t icky when I used it (and I am extremely picky about the way my food tastes so.) Hard to tell if it’s icky or not unless you try it yourself, mind.

I really enjoyed reading your post today. One of my fond memories of elementary school was learning how to make pasta and I have been itching to try again these many years later but haven’t went there yet — i’d like to make a fresh pasta without egg but after the ‘choking tears’ bit maybe i will stick with something more simple, tried and tested to start off with!!

Lovely post, Shauna! I’m not going to lie…hearing about how different store bought eggs are from farm fresh makes me kind of sad. Of course, we all know this already, but sometimes hearing something like your story really brings it home. I need to find an egg supplier!

hi. Im going to purchase the ingredients today and make some pasta. I have fresh basil and onions and tomatoes from the garden. How wonderful. Thankyou. Loved the video. You all should be on the cooking channel. What a fan base you already have. Btw metamucil is a wheat product too. In June I had to have a bowel resection after many years of gluten damage and IBS which was really gluten issues. I feel alive again after so many years. I have to take Citracel everyday as it is gluten free.

I love — really love — pasta but my wife has celiac so we don’t have pasta as much as I would like. I have tried the packaged gluten free pasta products and they are truly horrible.

A friend gave me your cookbook (I do the cooking in our house) and I tried your recipe for fresh pasta and really enjoyed it. It’s more sensitive to moisture and handling than semolina pasta but with attention to detail and fast working time I could make a really enjoyable pasta, for the entire family.

I’m looking forward to trying your updated recipe, and I wholeheartedly agree about non-factory farmed eggs. The beta carotene levels in “backyard eggs” if they are feed lots of fresh vegetables is just off the charts. They really make a difference in pancakes and waffles as well.

Thanks, Jeff. We think you’ll like this recipe too. We have found there are some good packaged gluten-free pastas, if you look. We love Bionaturae and also Il Macchiolo from Italy (expensive, but worth the splurge). The problem with most packaged gluten-free pastas is they give the wrong cooking times. They almost always make you cook it far too long. For example, we cook the Tinkyada pasta for 6 to 7 minutes instead of the 18 they require and like it just fine. Al dente is the way to go.

If you have a Trader Joe’s nearby, you can get their rice pasta which is pretty darn good. For $2 you can get a pound of organic, whole grain rice pasta. I’ve never tried the two Shauna mentions below but they are not whole grain.

TJs also has corn based pasta now too. Two shapes only. But I like this way better then the brown rise pasta. I know pasta is something I have always wanted to make and now is the time! Shauna, can you extrude this recipe or is it only for rolled pasta? I ordered your cookbook and am waiting for delivery! Thanks.

Joanne I’ve never used metamucil but psyllium is definitely gluten free. My dog has it added to her food every day LOL! In the UK you can buy both psyllium husk, and psyllium powder which is the husks ground up. I would never have thought of using it in cooking though

Shauna you are amazing.. for the first time in a few years I am enjoying scrummy fluffy pancakes, melt in the mouth pastry, and now real pasta! FAB

thanks so much for the metamucil update. Ive taken citracel for so long that I had no idea it was now gluten free. I see my surgeon tomorrow for my first post op appt and I can tell him Im switching to metamucil. Thats what he had wanted me on. Said I need for the rest of my gluten free life. Wait til I tell him that I put it in my pasta. lol.

I am the owner of Against The Grain Gourmet, and we use farm fresh eggs and farm fresh milk in our ingredients. I know too well the challenge of working with fresh ingredients–medium eggs have a different proportion of yolk than large eggs, brown than white (I’ve weighed them all!) Eggs delivered Monday are a different ingredient when used on Friday. And freshly bottled milk, don’t get me started on that. Milk changes when cows go from the winter to summer grass. The subtle changes in fresh ingredients are what makes baking with them so challenging, but also make the food taste so much better. Fresh ingredients also make manufacturing gluten free breads without industrialized ingredients extremely frustrating and rewarding. Some people have bad hair days. At our place, we have bad roll days!

Hey Shauna! Your post reminded me of making spinich pasta with my son years ago. I have a pic of him sitting on the tiny counter of my tiny kitchen with pasta hanging from a hanger. He was such a fun kid, he carried a spatchula around for 2 years! He is 22 now and just got married a month ago. Where does the time go??? Cherish every minute with Lu! It goes SO fast! Mel in Mo

Hey guys, since I just found out that I may be gluten intolerant and love pasta this was a great recipe for me. The different flours are what really is exciting. I have been using an extra yolk for my pasta for some time, even with regular flour, I find duck eggs are really nice, a little extra protien and fat in the yolks. I’m going to try it out soon, cause I love to roll out pasta and want to try ravioli.

Some day when he heat index is no longer in the 100s here in TN. I will have to try making pasta. New to gluten free, it intrigues me.

Our eldest did the same thing, farm fresh eggs scrambled in the morning is one of his favorites, he called them “yellow eggs.” When the chickens stopped laying in the cold winter months I bought store bought eggs. He balked and told me he wanted “yellow eggs!”

I’ve been wanting to try making pasta for such a long time, but keep telling myself that I can’t because I need a pasta roller machine first. (I can see now that’s a silly assumption.) It still scares me a little, but I figure I’m just going to have to suck it up and deal with my fear of pasta sooner rather than later.

Just wondering if you have ever used konjac flour as a gluten substitute? It’s also called glucomannan and is made from a yam grown in the South Pacific. They make yam noodles from it. You might find these in an Oriental store. They are also called miracle noodles and some women swear by them for weight loss. It’s pretty much flavorless, so takes on the flavors of what’s added to it. I haven’t eaten the noodles myself. They also make candy with it, but you have to be careful with little ones because is can stick in their throats. I take it with meals in capsule form, along with psyllium seed, and am gluten free due to microscopic colitis. Those things make my tummy happy and seem to help, too, with any accidental gluten ingestion. Kind of bind it up somehow. I’ve been thinking it might work as a gluten substitute, also.

Shauna, thank you so much for this. As I am Italian , the pasta problem has also kept me awake more than once! I did know the egg yolk trick and I have obtained reasonable results with linen seed flour but the taste is just not right. I am looking forward to try the psyllium powder.

Psyllium seed seem t be available in Italy. I am wondering why you have used the psyllium husk powder and if you think that ground psyllium seeds would also work.

If you ever come back to Umbria, come to cook in our kitchen, hopefully we’ll make some gluten free Umbrian stringozzi!

I have been cooking gluten free for my Danny for about 3 years now. Most recipes come from my future sister in law who sings your praises. But it is nothing like discovering you for real, for myself. One question– if you have time! I would love to try this new pasta recipe– as long as I can find the magic husk powder somewhere in Nova Scotia… But anyway. I just got your book (GFGirl and the chef) and am absolutely in awe and in love with it. Tonight made the fresh pasta with olive, capers, lemon recipe. It was my first time making fresh pasta. And everyone loved it. I loved making it. But I noticed a sort of gelatinous texture. Is that normal? Or would you have any advice? I made fetuccine, by hand– and followed the recipe to a T.

I absolutely love this recipe! Thanks for all the time, love and creativity that you spent developing this template.

I thought I would pass along some of the learning experience that I’ve had in making this recipe three times. The first attempt at homemade pasta went flawlessly — the garfava/soy/tapioca mix came together with 1 T of oil and 1 T of water. For my next two batches I decided to branch out and experiment with different flours, including a fragrant lentil flour from an Indian market and some black bean flour to make a couple of different kinds of ravioli. The second and third doughs didn’t come together as expected, even as I drizzled in extra oil and water to both. When pasta rolling time came the doughs began to crumble, so I went back to the food processor. I began wondering what made the difference between the first and second/third trials. Finally as I slowly drizzled water into the food processor, the dough came together into those distinctive curd-like clumps.

What had changed? I think the key difference was the climate! Moving from humid Michigan to hot, dry Montana had changed the moisture content of the flours. I feel like I have a much better understanding of this recipe now. Just look for the curds and don’t be afraid to add more water if the dough doesn’t seem right.

Thanks so much for this! I made cheese ravioli with this pasta (and pesto!) last night and while I found the dough pretty hard to work with (it didn’t hold up well when I put it through my pasta machine), the result was still exciting. My husband loves ravioli and I’m going to keep trying this until I get better at the process because it’s way more fun to make him ravioli that I can enjoy too!

oh ya, and if you have any tips for great gluten free shops/restaurants/bakeries that have gluten free goods in seattle I would love to hear about them! My brother lives in seattle and I visit a few times a year. thanks!

Yum. This recipe was so easy, and the noodles turned out really well. I think I might make my pasta from scratch from now on — I’m a convert. However, I will never again think that using garbanzo flour instead of garfava flour is going to work — it works, but the beaniness is overwhelming.

I’m curious about making this dough without eggs. I don’t usually eat eggs, and I’d prefer not to most of the time.

Hi! Read your book, “gluten-free girl” in search of additional information and especially recipes. I cannot wait to try this gluten-free egg pasta recipe but I would find it most helpful if you would please clarify for me, if your revised recipe is for grocery store eggs or fresh chicken eggs? We have a small flock of chickens for eggs and are all too well aware of the superior quality of the protein in the eggs our hens supply and would like to use their eggs if appropriate for your recipe. Would it also be possible for you and your husband to provide a total weight in ounces for each respective type of egg/yolk? Additionally, if we are using fresh eggs, would it still work to omit the psyllium having had problems ingesting this in the past? Also, in your book, you had written that you do make your own fresh gluten-free ravioli and was curious if you have recipes for fillings, cutting, (tart/biscuit cutters permissible), sealing and cooking processes. I really miss those cheesy raviolis. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences which we all find so familiar and at times a challenge to navigate.

Thanks for this great recipe! I subbed chickpea and sorghum for the garbanzo and millet flours, and found the taste to be delicious. I’ve really become fond of the sorghum in my baking; it just has a certain taste that I really enjoy. I didn’t have extra large eggs, so I used one extra yolk (I had large eggs only), and it seemed to work. I ended up using a bit extra water than the recipe calls for, but I live in a fairly dry prairie climate.

I am very new to cooking GF.… but I am hopelessly addicted to pasta (probably destroyed my intestines eating bowl after bowl of spaghetti/pasta/mac n cheese). I tried this recipe and was not as successful as I had hoped to be. The dough in the food processor was very wet with the addition of the wet ingredients, so I had to add a lot of extra flour. Rolling it out, the pasta kept sticking to the surface, and also kept falling apart. I kept going, and let the noodles sit before boiling. They came out very slimy and tasted awful. I just don’t know what went wrong. I just feel like after spending $20+ on flours and psyllium husk — it was just a very big waste of money. Any suggestions?

Caryn, I’m sorry that it didn’t work out the way you hoped. But take heart! It will be better next time. Making fresh pasta is a learned experience. It takes quite a bit of practice. My guess is that it’s all the extra flour you added. Try it again with the weights and flours we suggested. If it feels sticky, put some flour on the board before you roll it out. That’s where your extra flour goes. After a few more tries, you’ll be a pro!

Hello Gluten Free Girl, I know you are very busy but I felt I had to try to write you. I love how you cook with your husband, but even more I love that he cooks gluten free for you even though he is able to tolerate gluten. I have recently been forced to give up the wonderful stuff. I have had GI problems my entire life, always diagnosed as IBS, and feeling sick was something that I thought I was just going to have to live with. I started seeing a psychologist and she recommend I ask my doctor for a celiac blood test. I looked into celiac disease and was filled with hope when it seemed to match many of my symptoms but, to my dismay, the test came back negative. Not allergic to Gluten. Life went on and I seemed to have fallen into a bad patch with my stomach again for a few months, bad enough that I was looking at doing another colonoscopy… something had to be wrong! ( all medical testing in the past showed nothing, I have a completely normal and fully functioning stomach and bowels, it is all in my head, anxiety…hence why I was seeing a psycologist) Someone suggested that I try cutting gluten regardless of the test and eventually I did. My mind set was to try for a month, see how I feel, and go from there. Today I am just over 3 weeks in to eating gluten free and I actually feel like a new person. I can’t believe how much energy I have and I haven’t felt sick since the day I stopped. As a avid baker and my husband being a hobby cook, I have found the change difficult to deal with. We had a large family gathering last week and my amazing husband insisted on making homemade gluten free pasta for a lasagna… what a feat! He has never been one to stray from a challenge but really? pasta as your first gluten free baking experience? The dough looked and acted like silly putty, slippery, shiny, nothing like pasta dough…but do you know what, he made it work. He said it was worth all the trouble to have me be able to eat with the family and not have me grumpy and moaning with sickness afterwards. This is one of many reasons I love him. They say those who cook together stay together!

Ohh! I should have mentioned he refused to look at a recipe and hence the silly putty dough. Next time I am going to convince him to use yours and avoid the stress. Thank you for the failproof GF recipes!

Hi there, I’m soo excited to have found this recipe and your blog I can’t wait to make fresh pasta with my kids. We’re in Labrador, Canada and do not have any health food stores here but i brought some flax flour from nova scotia and wondering if i could do a straight exchange for the psyllium powder? Thanks

Amazing recipe. Soft, tasty and not a bit rubbery like shop bought GF pasta. Thank you so much for sharing and for all your hard work GFG.

For those in the UK I replaced the bean flour with chickpea flour and the millet with brown rice flour as these are easier to get hold of. I also used whole Psyllium husks as they are loads cheaper and normal sized UK free-range eggs worked well.

Just made this. hubby will be home soon. Hope he likes. Need something that taste great & not rice or corn, he’s diabetic. With just us two we eat the same foods. He has been such a good sport about my gluten free diet.

Hi! For several months I have been vaguely planning to make fresh pasta, but hadn’t been able to get to it for one reason or another. Then yesterday my copy of La Cucina Italiana arrived — the pasta issue! and as I was alternately drooling over the recipes and lamenting that I couldn’t eat them, I remembered this recipe. I was wondering how the dough lends itself to other shapes, like orecchiete and other thicker pastas; and if you had tried to make a spinach version?

First time to try making gluten free pasta. It kept falling apart when I put it in the roller at first setting (kitchen aid attachment). I tried rolling it several times and just kept falling apart. I got so frustrated that I chucked the whole thing in the trash. Now I feel bad about doing that. I will try this again another day…

Thank you for taking the time to find different flours to use for pasta. I have been diagnosed with CD just recently and my biggest fear was that I was not going to be able to eat my homemade pasta. I purchased some gluten free spaghetti last night and threw it out because it was disgusting. I would never have known where to start to change the recipe to be gluten free. Thank you again for taking the time to help those of us that love these types of foods but can no longer eat them without creating havoc within our system. I have always prided myself that I created my own pasta and home baked goods but what good is that if I can enjoy them with everyone else. Thank you thank you thank you.

Thanks for a wonderful recipe — and a great explanation on how you came to the final version! I was just wondering what you would suggest for an extruded pasta dough that is GF. The usual version is just semolina & water.…but where to start for a GF version?!

I have been looking for a pasta made with bean flour! I can’t tolerate two of the ingredients. Is the psyllium flour necessary ? What can I substitute for the potato starch? Corn starch is not an option. Thank you so much for a promising recipe!

Roberta, this is why we work in grams! You can sub in whatever works for you, as long as you use the same amount of grams. Try arrowroot instead of potato starch. Or tapioca. And the psyllium? It’s pretty essential. But you can try xanthan gum or guar gum instead, if you can tolerate those.

Sorry you had to suffer through the heartaches of multiple testings, but I know we’re all grateful for your hard work! I was wondering if you’d ever used a pastry cloth to roll out your pasta. I unfortunately live in a tiny apartment and storing a marble slab just isn’t in the plans right now. I love my pastry cloth for pie crusts and biscuits, but I’m wondering if it’s going to work for pasta?

I made this tonight. I had garbanzo flour (no fava), sorghum flour (no millet) and then the rest of the ingredients suggested. The dough tasted pretty beany so I added about a big teaspoon of mushroom powder to distract from that taste and I think that worked. I used my Atlas pasta maker and made very thin pasta. It takes lots of patience to get it to work, but it did. I now think it might have been better cut a little thicker like fettuccine. It was good, though. Thanks for all your work to develop this. I’ll try it again.

My husband and I made this last night, I couldn’t find millet flour so we used 2x as much garbanzo flour. We had to add a little extra olive oil and water but the dough turned out well. The pasta certainly has a savory taste but we both thought is was very good. We grilled a couple chicken breasts and served it with marsala sauce. The recipe will become a staple in my kitchen and I am looking forward to experimenting with other flours.

My daughter is allergic to chicken eggs and we can use duck eggs instead. Chicken eggs weight 2 oz. and duck eggs weight 3 oz. if I substitute duck eggs for the chicken eggs, how do I determine how to adjust everything else? Love your blog! Thank you for all you do!

Tried this recipe tonight, and the texture was absolutely phenomenal! Not slimy or rubbery at all, perfectly al dente. It was also my first time making pasta by hand, just like in the video– fun and rewarding. I didn’t care for the flavor of the bean flour, so I’ll be subbing it next time with something else, but otherwise this recipe is the only one I’ll ever need for GF pasta.

Hi there, do you have any tips on turning your wonderful pasta recipe into Negro (squid ink) pasta. I am a trainee chef and I have just learnt that my daughter has coeliacs disease, this is after 18 years of her being in pain and her hair falling out. She loves squid ink pasta, but the pain she gets afterward is not pleasant. After reading your post I want to make her some pasta. So if you have a recipe or can point me in the right direction i would be eternally grateful

This recipe worked wonderfully. This was my first attempt at pasta since switching to a gluten free diet 18 months ago; I had eliminated pasta from my diet as I have not been happy with the gluten free pasta I have purchased. I am so excited about this recipe and the variety it will add to my diet!